Mikan's Guardian Angel
by Melody H. Grace
Summary: Oneshot yes, another one : Nobara is a kind girl with the Ice Alice. Her first real friend, Mikan, is at the Christmas party, and possibly in danger. Nobara must protect her from afar...Yeah, I stink at summeries. It's better than it sounds. R


**Yoo-hoo! I'm back! Yeah, I haven't been updating too often, but what do you expect: me to be writing FanFiction every day? Of course not! I have homework (maybe you lot don't, if you can read FanFiction so often…). **

**Anyway, I came across this little one-shot idea while reading chapters 47-50 and part of 52. It's from Nobara Ibaragi's perspective because she's shy, innocent, and completely and totally awesome! Oh, and before I forget-this "Follies of a Faulty Christmas", and "One Day's Regret" have nothing to do with each other! Absolutely nada! Those two (FFC and ODR) was slightly AU. This (MGA) is what Nobara most likely went through in the manga (we never found out, but I like to think that this is what happened). Okay, I'm starting to ramble again. On with the story…**

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

"Why can't I go into the party this year?" I protested to Persona, whose frown deepened considerably. I never got to go, ever. Nor did I ever want to. All the other kids in my class were fairly mean to me, because of my Ice Alice. The kindest were Kaname Sonoh, Tsubasa Ando, and Misaki Harada. Actually, scratch that: the kindest was Sonoh-san. Ando-kun and Harada-san were only nice to me when Kaname was around, which wasn't that often because his Alice is Limitless-it makes him die. Slowly. It didn't really seem fair to me.

Anyway, the reason that I wanted to go this year because I _finally_ made a real friend. As in, one that is always here and is always happy to see me. Her name is Mikan Sakura (her name is kind of strange, but extremely cute). She's 10 years old and has bright brown eyes and long, straight caramel hair. She didn't care about my funny, bright blue hair, or the fact that I'm 13 and have no friends, or my Dangerous Alice. It's actually kind of funny how we became friends…

__*-FLASHBACK-*__

_I turned the corner quickly, trying to make sure that no one, especially Persona, would see me. I wasn't supposed to sneak out. I was supposed to be getting ready for my next mission, which was tonight. Really, the entirety of the AAO must be on Santa's "Naughty" list (that is, if Santa exists, of course), for making a master plan for world domination on the day before Christmas Eve. I snuck over to the Cake-making section. _

'_I'll just make a couple of cakes and then go back,' I decided to myself. 'No one will ever know,'_

"_S'cuse me! Coming through!" a boy from the high school division called out. He didn't see me, so he knocked into me. Caught by surprise, I leapt out of the way and pretended to trip onto my stomach (Persona always said: "If you get caught, play clumsy or dead" I didn't particularly even want to pretend to die, so clumsiness will have to do). I slowly tried to get to my feet, clutching my abdomen in pain. Training or not-falling on a marble floor HURTS so much…_

"_Hey, are you okay?" asked a bright voice, worriedly. I looked up to behold an innocent looking elementary school girl_

"_I'm fine," I said, successfully prying myself off the floor. To my amusement, she was about a half a foot shorter than me, but by the way she was acting, she could have been my mother. Well, maybe not MY mother, as "mother dearest" had sold me to the academy, but, she (the little girl, not my mom) was kind of acting in a maternal fashion._

"_I'm Mikan Sakura!" she squealed. Okay, maybe she is acting more sisterly than motherly. "I'm in class 2B in the Elementary Division and I'm 10!" she seemed to be a sweet and innocent girl. _

"_Nobara Ibaragi," I introduced politely. "I'm in class 3E in the Middle School Division. I just turned 13 in September," she smiled._

"_Nobara-sempai!" she said happily. I was shocked-I wasn't used to being addressed with honorifics other than '-chan' (by Sonoh-san, the only truly decent person in my class). "Do you know how to cool the cakes off?" she started pouting. "I REALLY want to start frosting, but they have to cool off first and all of my friends are on the Decorating Team and I'm BORED!" I winced. I didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings, since I could help, but I really didn't want other people to know I was here. _

'_Maybe if I concentrate really hard, my Alice will come out more controlled,' I thought, making up my mind._

"_Yeah, I can. I have the Alice of Ice," I said quietly. Her eyes brightened._

"_What a cool Alice!" she exclaimed. I was starting to wonder what her Alice was, but I knew it was rude of me to ask, so I didn't._

"_Thank you," I said, turning towards the warm sponge cakes._

'_Here goes nothing,' I thought, as I held my hands out in front of me and activated my Alice._

_Immediately, the same peculiar sensation came over me as I saw the cakes visibly cooling off. But I couldn't stop._

'_Drat,' I thought, finally pulling my hands back. The good news was: the back half of the cakes were ready to be frosted. The bad news was: the front half of the cakes are now icicles with sponge cake centers._

"_I'm sorry," I stammered to Mikan and the rest of the Cake Team. "I can't control my Alice to well an-"_

_Suddenly, the flames appeared on top of the too-frozen cakes. After a few seconds, they were back to the way they started. Mikan and I turned to face Natsume Hyuga. Who, by the way, wasn't terribly pleased to see me._

"_What are you doing here?" he asked furiously._

"_Hyuga-kun…" I started. I knew that he knew that I wasn't allowed to be there. Hopefully, he'll let it go…_

"_Go back to your cocoon. Or I'll make you go back," and he didn't let it go. As he walked away, I realized that I'll be back in front of my mean "brother" within a half an hour. I sighed._

"_You know each other?" Mikan wondered aloud. 'They were probably in the same class,' I realized._

"_Mikan, everyone," I started, ignoring her question. "I'm rea-"_

"_Don't worry!" Mikan said cheerfully. Everyone else (including me) stared at her. "So you messed up once! It doesn't matter; we can try again. This time, I'll help you,"_

"_How?" I asked. I figured this is when she would tell me her Alice, say how, like mine, it is useless here, and say that one of her friends could lend her something. Her Alice is probably something like Teleportation, or Telekinesis, or something like that…_

"_Well, I'll dilute your Alice with mine. I have the Nullification Alice," she explained, beaming. I almost started gaping. The Nullification Alice is extremely rare. It could supposedly temporarily seal an Alice. As she was so young, the most she could probably do is dampen another Alice. _

"_Okay, why not?" I said, shrugging and smiling a little. Smiling felt so good. I haven't smiled in years…_

_She placed her hands on my back. I felt some of my Alice get sapped away by hers. I raised my hands and released my Alice. I got the same feeling that I had before, only this time, I was able to pull away in time for it to be perfectly cool._

"_I did it right…" I said to myself._

"_We did it!" Mikan shouted, enveloping me in a hug. Suddenly, a vat of chocolate icing spilt over our heads and drenched us in sugary goodness (I'm a chocolate lover. It's the thing that keeps me normal). We looked up to see another girl, about Mikan's age, with short, raven-colored hair and amethyst eyes in what looked like a flying swan. She looked vaguely familiar…_

"_HOTARU!" Mikan burst out happily. Oh, yeah, she's Hotaru Imai, the sister of the Principle, Subaru Imai, with the Invention Alice. Immediately, she whipped out a bright-orange colored gun and pointed at Mikan's head and…_

"_BAKA! BAKA! BAKA!" shouted the gun, sending fast-moving, fist-like objects. Mikan dodged two, but got hit square in the forehead with the last one._

"_Mikan-chan!" I shouted, jumping to her side to examine the bruise. It wasn't so bad-I've had worse. But then again, I'm in the Dangerous Ability Class, so I can't really be the judge of everyday bruises._

"_Hotaru, you meanie!" she shouted, leaping up. She tried jumping up and down, trying to catch her flying friend. She slowly descended. To be honest, doing that wasn't a good idea, considering that Mikan probably wants to kill her…_

…_or hug her, as she was doing now. _

"_Mikan-chan! Are you okay?" came a young, male voice. I looked away from the best friends to see a boy with blond hair and glasses, wearing the Elementary Division uniform, running towards us. He arrived, panting before noticing me standing there. He was probably a little bit taller than Mikan and Hotaru. "Hi! I'm Yuu Tobita, class representative of Elementary Division Class 2B," he said, holding out his hand to shake. Which I did, bewildered. I had suddenly gone from being friendless to having two friends, and a person who was at least friendly-ish. I realized that I hadn't introduced myself to the other two 10-year-olds, so I did after the arrival of two more girls (whose names turned out to be Anna and Nonoko). We started talking. I was surprised to find that none of them knew about me, so I was out of hot water with them thinking I was cold-blooded. After about an hour of talking and frosting (and smiling), I realized that somebody must have noticed my disappearance by now. So, I said a tearful goodbye, before heading back to Dangerous Class HQ. I was glad I had snuck out-it had been the best afternoon of my life._

_I say "had" because Ando-kun walked up to the five Elementary kids and started talking to them. Hopefully, though, not about me._

__*-END OF FLASHBACK-*__

"Because, my little Ice Princess," he said, snapping my attention back to him "I want you to help the others in making sure me and the Elementary School Principal don't get caught out and about," Persona was currently in a long, black, and hooded dress, with a long wig. His mask was off, and he replaced all of his Alice Control devices with a single, super powerful one: a long gold chain with a giant crimson stone dangling from it (crystallized blood of a Barrier Alice, I would guess), which was currently tucked underneath the dress.

In short, he looked like a woman.

It was honestly taking all I could to avoid laughing. I tuned back into the conversation enough to hear him say: "Do you understand?" I nodded. "Good," he turned to me again before leaving "By the way, just in case anything happens and it looks like one of us is caught, get a dress so that you can blend in to bail us out. Okay?" I nodded again. He smiled grimly and exited. I exited after him, hoping to myself that maybe I would be able to hang out at the party and talk to Mikan-chan and everyone else. Maybe Mikan-chan convinced Ando-kun and Harada-san that I'm actually nice and I could talk to them. I reached the dress-storage room thinking that maybe this year would be exciting for me.

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

I reached for a glass of water in my station (a poufy chair in the mezzanine that was forbidden from others) thinking that this year was going to be just as boring for me. I watched as random people waltzed with each other, with lots of smiles caressing their features.

"Psst! Hey, Koori-hime!" **(A/N: "Koori-hime" is Japanese for "Ice Princess")** I spun around in my chair at the sound of my [infamous] nickname to see myself facing Rui, one of my fellow Dangerous Ability Types. Unlike me, he is well adored by his peers, but mostly the female ones. But, he decided not to go, because he overheard some girls planning on spiking chocolate (his all-time favorite food as well as mine) with love potion. This was even worse than it should be because Rui is…um…well…_strange_, to put it bluntly. He didn't want to kiss any girls, so he decided to stay up here and keep me company.

"What's wrong?" I asked politely. Rui grinned.

"Seeing as though our dearest instructors are very good spies, would you like to play a game?" he asked.

"What kind of game?" I asked suspiciously. With Rui, anything could have a double meaning. He smiled slyly.

"The game is called 'Guardian Angel'. In this game, you have to watch over someone during the entire time of the party. Then, afterwards, if something bad happens to them, you have to tell the person who cares about him or her most what happened. What do you say? Want to play?" he asked, eyes glinting.

"You're on," I said off-handedly. It seemed pretty boring, but at least it would give me something to do.

"I SHOT TSUBASA-KOHAI!" Right, forgot. His…_strangeness_…made him have a crush on Ando-kun. I was the one who was trying to get him off of him, as Ando is Kaname-kun's friend, the latter of whom is at least a little bit kind to me. Favor of a "friend," in a way, I guess.

"Not so loud, idiot!" I hissed, but I looked through the crowd, and sure enough, I found Mikan. She looked like she was having fun, eating with Hotaru and Nonoko (I wonder where Yuu and Anna went…maybe dancing…). "I'll guard Mikan Sakura-san."

"Alrighty then! Ready…set…START!" My eyes locked on Mikan. She was eating. And eating. And eating…

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

An hour had gone by quickly and so far, nothing had happened to Mikan. The only thing that happened to me was that my butt fell asleep.

"Rui, I'm bored!" I called out.

"Ssh! Tsubasa is eating a sandwich!" Rui said, starry eyed. He seriously needs to take his crush down a notch-it was kind of pathetic, and I'm anti-social.

Then, something caught my eye. I realized that Mikan was standing up, and was now with that friend of Natsume's. Luca Nogi…I think…Anyway, in addition to them was Hotaru, Yuu, Anna, Nonoko, that little Youchi kid (he just joined Dangerous Ability Class as a 3-year-old…poor kid…), and a blond haired-brown eyed kid whom I've seen before (I think he has the Mind-Reading Alice) but don't know the name of. They were walking towards a stuffed bear who was…SWEEPING?!?!?!

I sat forward in my chair, wide-eyed. That bear must be Bear-san; the homicidal teddy bear that tried to kill Mikan on several occasions. I wanted to leap down and knock the stuffing out of it, until I saw Ando and Harada walk up to them and start talking. I saw Mind-Reader Boy give Harada a hug, leaving her slightly confused. Ando picked up Bear by the arms and asked him something. Then he looked towards Mikan and the gang and asked something. Luca started explaining something to him, occasionally gesturing to Youchi and Bear. That's when I remembered something-Youchi had lost his teddy bear (which represented his mother) yesterday. He probably wanted to play with Bear. Ando talked to Bear again. Bear shook his head no. Ando talked to Bear again. Bear, again, shook his head no. Ando turned him towards Youchi, then to Mikan, before talking to him again. Bear considered, and then nodded. He jumped into Youchi's arms. Youchi grinned (looking like a baby angel, not like a bad spirit wielder), and started playing. Mikan smiled at them, before looking around and spotting me. She grinned and waved. I waved back, feeling a little bit lighter hearted. Ando must not have said anything bad about her.

She bent down and picked up the broom and started sweeping. That's when the whole story hit me: Bear had been asked to clean up the balcony. When Youchi wanted to play with him, Bear wanted to, just to get out of work, but couldn't. So, Mikan volunteered to take the job. I wanted to help her, but I don't think it was my place to. Besides, Persona will (literally) kill me.

After a couple of minutes, Hotaru and Yuu returned. Yuu was holding a picked sign that said: "Litter Fine: 100 yen," while Hotaru appeared to be holding a remote control. What she was controlling became evident in a couple of minutes. A tiny flying robot passed in front of my eyes and scanned them.

"You have thrown no litter. You charge is: 0 yen," and it flew off. I turned back to Mikan. She was sitting down, relaxing a little bit. I saw Luca and Youchi walk up to her. Youchi pulled on one of her pigtails and gave her a little kiss on the cheek, and then sped off to chase Bear. Mikan started giggling. Luca blushed as he quickly kissed her on the cheek as well, waved goodbye, and then started after Youchi.

'Aw,' I thought to myself 'That's so sweet,' A quick little memory of Kaname and I in a similar situation cropped up in my mind, and I blushed myself, looking down at my lap.

"Hey, look at Persona!" Rui said suddenly, pointing towards the other end of the room. I turned to where he was pointing and saw Persona, in all of his goth-girly glory. He did sort of look like a woman, but I knew a disguise when I saw one. He was talking to Narumi-sensei. I don't talk to him much. He tried to get me to be friends with a girl named Aya Muzino. She was popular, with the Alice of Embarrassment. You can only guess what she did to me. I have had a grudge against Aya and Narumi (called "Naru" by the Dangerous Ability Types-we all hate him **(A/N: I DON'T! GO NARU!) **) ever since.

I saw Persona grip Naru's wrist tightly to tell him something. Suddenly, Naru winced. He tugged his hand out of Persona's grip, and I saw the dark scars on his hand. Persona's Alice. Even though I hate Naru, Persona really shouldn't have done that. Naru didn't deserve to die. But, there is no cure to Persona's Alice, so I'm going to have to start writing his death speech.

I decided to look back towards Mikan. Now, Mikan was alone with Luca and…Natsume Hyuga?

I leaned forward. Yup, that was Hyuga alright. Trademark red eyes. Lack of smiles, even when he can actually wear one. Messy black hair. It was him in all of his normal troublemaking glory. Luca appeared to be reasoning with the two. Mikan and Hyuga were staring at him incredulously, looked at each other, and then back to Luca. He smiled slightly before walking away.

Suddenly, Hyuga grabbed Mikan, and pulled towards him in a dancing position, said something (to which Mikan nodded), and the two started dancing.

"Look," I said, prodding Rui on the shoulder. "Hyuga's softened up to Mikan-chan,"

"SSH! Tsubasa is on line for chocolate mousse cake!" Okay, now this was getting ridiculous. I poked him again, harder.

"The cold-blooded Hyuga. Dancing. _Slow_-dancing. With a girl," I saw realization dawn in his eyes.

"OOHHHH!" he said. I grinned. He's off Ando. He is off…

"Hey look! Tsubasa is _eating_ chocolate mousse cake!" Never mind.

Suddenly, a collective gasp from the crowd. I saw everybody looking towards Mikan and Hyuga. I did to, and gaped. Mikan was on top of him, their mouths touching. That was probably a very interesting first kiss.

"GET OFF ME!" Ah, finally, _sound_ for the whole situation! Mikan responded to Hyuga's command immediately. I saw that she was blushing with embarrassment, and that he was flushing with anger.

Yeah, what a romantic first kiss it must have been.

Everybody stood there, gaping at the two. Hyuga turned towards the crowed.

"What? Have you never seen a kiss before or something?" Hyuga asked, annoyed. He stormed out of the party outside. Mikan stayed where she was for a moment. Then, everyone else continued with the party, while Mikan drifted towards the buffet. Rui turned to me and grinned.

"That was the strangest thing I ever saw, what about you?" he asked, eyes glinting.

"Yeah. I-" but that's all I got to say when suddenly:

"TELL ME YOU SAID KISU! KOSU!" the yells of a permifried-green-haired girl were just barely audible. Rui and I looked at each other and laughed.

"I'm going to go see if Tsubasa-kohai has changed his mind about me yet," Rui said, starting down the stairs "See you!" And he was gone before I could tell him to keep his butt glued to the seat. Suddenly, something dawned in my head.

'If _he_ could get out without anyone noticing, maybe _I_ can too!' and I trotted down the stairs, where, sure enough, there was nobody to stop me from going into the party.

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

'Ah, this is better,' I thought, as I descended the stairs. Almost immediately, I spotted her (the bright (I mean this more or less in a literal sense) little girl that she is) dancing with a young boy with dark reddish-brown hair and a blue suit…he looks an awful lot like the Elementary School Principal…

It dawned on me. 'No! Not Mikan-chan!' They must want her for her Alice. I had overheard something a couple of days ago between Persona and ESP **(A/N: ****E****lementary ****S****chool ****P****rincipal. Get it?)**

__*-FLASHBACK-*__

'_Almost there!' I thought. I had just come back from a mission. I was aching all over and I wanted to sleep. But first, I had to give Persona a package: an Alice Stone, and a big one too. I think he wanted to break it into smaller pieces to give to us for missions just in case it was necessary. _

"…_she's a Stealing Alice we think. She already has the Alice of her Father…"Persona was saying. I realized that this probably wasn't a good time to come in, so I decided to do the first thing that came to me at that very moment._

_And that is to listen at the keyhole._

"_Well, the girl has Izumi Yukihara's Alice, and he had an affair with Yuka Azumi, who has the Stealing Alice. It makes sense," said ESP impatiently. I had never heard him sound so much like the child that he appears to be. But, there is a first for everything, I guess._

"_Why can't we just tell her to join Dangerous Ability class now? The sooner we start training, the better," Poor girl. She'll be miserable here with us._

"_We can't be sure yet. I have a plan to make sure of it," ESP is sounding pleased. This is not good._

"_Pray tell," Persona replied._

"_I'm going to ask you to use your Alice on Narumi. He's important to the girl, and, if I'm correct, he was in love with Azumi. He probably treats her like his own daughter. But, do use it so it reacts in him slowly."_

"_How long should it be drawn out?"_

"_Two or three months. She'll probably use her original Alice to stop your Alice, and, if it comes out of Narumi as an Alice Stone, then we know she's the Stealing Alice."_

"_When shall this oh-so-brilliant plan of yours take place?" Persona is beginning to sound sarcastic. I know that he doesn't particularly like taking orders from people. ESP better watch out if he wants to live…_

…_Then again, Persona'll be doing the world a favor, so I'll help Persona bury the body if I had to…_

…_NO! I'M STARTING TO THINK LIKE PERSONA! SHOO, THOUGHTS OF EVIL! GO AWAY! I started flailing my arms at my head, ignoring the throbbing protests from my forehead and arms despite the cruel mission and the heavy Alice Stone, which had long since taken residence on the floor. But, the conversation continued._

"…_party. It's not too far off, so we'll be ready by then," Darn, missed when it was. "You're dismissed," I picked up the Alice Stone and started towards the other wall. Fortunately, the Alice Stone turned out to be Super-Speed, so I sped down two hallways before meeting Persona face-to-face._

_He won't notice if the Stone that was once raven-colored is now dark purple, right?_

__*-END OF FLASHBACK-*__

Mikan was wanted by ESP. This was bad. This was _really_ bad. This is really, really, REALLY…

Suddenly, a sharp _clack_ reverberated around me. I (and several others) turned around to see that Mikan was now mask-less. And a still-masked ESP was smirking at her.

"Be careful not to lose something important to you," he said coolly, before walking away. Okay, even if ESP wasn't in on the plan, that still would have been bad. He has the Seeing Alice (you know, seeing into the future?), so of course he would have seen bad stuff happening. Hence the "seen" part.

Never mind, I'm rambling **(A/N:…What? Nobara's cool as she is, but she is a little too shy. She has to have a sense of sarcasm **_**somewhere**_**, right? So why not from me?)**.

Mikan started walking, dejected towards the giant oak tree in the center (apparently, Hi-sama, the Middle School Division Principal, hates pine trees. Weird.). I followed her with a sense of curiosity. I had a strange feeling that Mikan's strange night isn't quite over yet.

"Hotaru? Yuu? Someone? Please be up here," she said quietly. It took all of my will-power to avoid coming out of the shadows to tell Mikan that I was here and give her a hug. She started climbing up the tree, which I did, but from the other side. She couldn't see me. Partly because of ESP's evil scheme, but mostly because of Rui's stupid game.

I finally reached the top, slightly out of breath, to see that Mikan was blowing her nose, much to the annoyance of…Hyuga? Hadn't he done enough damage for Mikan already?

"Not feminine," he grumbled. I wanted to laugh. It was like watching a kitten think it was a tiger. Okay, maybe not a kitten. An adult cat. That's more fitting.

She turned to him, annoyed. "Hmph!" she said, turning her nose up into the air, the hankie dropping to the ground below.

"You're such an idiot for thinking that that 'jinx' is real," Hyuga droned on. "What if the wind blew everyone's mask off? Would that mean that everyone was jinxed too?" Mikan beamed with happiness.

"Thanks, Natsume," she said cheerfully.

"Weren't you just mad at me?" her face fell. Maybe she was bipolar or something, flitting between emotions every couple of minutes. I hadn't picked up on it when I met her yesterday.

"Yeah! Why did you tell everyone there that we kissed!" she shrieked.

"Because we did," Hyuga pointed out. To Mikan's chagrin, he was technically right.

"No! My tooth just hit your mouth! THERE'S A DIFFERENCE!" Hyuga was starting to get annoyed. Two words Mikan: Bad. Idea.

"So, what? It's just a kiss," said Hyuga, completely ignoring Mikan's last statement.

"No it wasn't! That would mean that it was my first! And it's supposed to be with a boy I'm in love with!" Hyuga looked away, dejected. He had a crush on her! No way! Well, they say that the mighty must fall at some point.

"Fine. So it was my first kiss. Which happened to be with you," he replied. Heart-broken or not, he was still Hyuga. At this point, Mikan exploded.

"It was an accident!" she yelled. "Don't count that!" and (wouldn't you know it) Hyuga pulled her face to his and started kissing her.

'Aw,' I thought to myself, smiling. 'How sweet,' and I climbed down, letting the two 10-year-olds have their privacy.

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

"So, Koori-hime," said Rui, after telling a rather vivid tale of how Ando-kun had forced a slice of chocolate mousse cake into Rui's face and started running for the hills after being asked of his feelings for Rui. "How was your protectee's night?"

I paused, considering whether or not to tell Rui about Mikan's rather eventful night. The rules were to tell the person who cares about the person I was guarding most. I knew what to do.

"Can't tell you," I said, walking back towards my dorm, though not soon enough to not see the look of disappointment on Rui's face.

I knew who probably wanted to know about this more than anyone else. He showed feelings for Mikan that he had never shown for anyone else. Most likely, Mikan was the only person who could truly become part of him, as more than a friend. I knew that he would care about her and protect her until he died. And possibly afterward. As I walked back to my dorm, I wondered to myself:

'_I wonder how much of a burn ESP will get…'_

***_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_***

**Ta-da! That, my friends, was the longest one-shot I have ever written. Over 4,500 words. Wow! My fingers hurt so much, but it is SO worth it! This whole thing was 8 typed pages on Microsoft Word. **

**Okay, because it took me so long to write this (so…very…long…ARGH!), I need to pay for bandages to fix up my fingers. Unfortunately, the hospital in question doesn't except money: it only fixes my fingers if I get a certain number of reviews.**

**-Flashback-**

**Me: "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!"**

**Nurse: "I'm sorry, but you have to get ### number of reviews if you want to keep your fingers."**

**Me: "You're not even going to tell me how MANY I NEED?!?!"**

**Nurse: "I'm truly sorry. Run along now."**

**Me: **_**muttering to myself as I exit**_** "Evil Nurse…How dare she…"**

**-End of Flashback-**

**Be a friend and help out. Review. Please. For Me? (flashes a cheesy smile, eyes growing wider, more sparkly, and much, much bigger)**

**Sincerely,**

**Melody H. Grace**


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